Computers were originally designed to handle natural languages (principally English) which utilize comparatively small numbers of characters. For example, the set of characters commonly found on English language keyboards comprising the upper case letters A-Z, lower case letters a-z, digits 0-9, plus a few punctuation marks and other special characters normally suffice to enable English speakers to interact with computers. A "font" is a complete group of such characters presented in the same style (i.e. typeface) and size.
Western computer designers have standardized fonts to consist of 256 characters per font. This presents a problem to users who wish to interact with computers in other languages having many more characters than English. For example, the Chinese language has over 15,000 characters in contemporary use, with about 3,000 of those being in everyday use. Fonts restricted to 256 characters are clearly inadequate to represent a useful range of Chinese characters.
A single eight-bit "byte" of information can uniquely represent any one of the possible 256 different characters in a conventional English character font. Since computers can conveniently manipulate information in bytes, this largely explains why Western designers elected to restrict themselves to 256 characters per font. However, two bytes are required to uniquely represent any one of the possible different characters in a single font of Chinese characters. (Two bytes, consisting of 16 bits, can uniquely represent any one of 65,536 possible different characters, which is more than adequate to cover the complete range of Chinese characters). Chinese software developers have accordingly developed "dual-byte" font schemes to enable users to interact with computers in Chinese.
Font-handling technology is fundamental to a computer program's ability to interact with a user in the input, display, printing of other use of characters. Western computer software, such as that designed for use with the popular Microsoft.RTM. Windows.TM. environment, relies upon single byte fonts consisting of only 256 characters per font. This renders Chinese dual-byte software incompatible with the Microsoft.RTM. Windows.TM. environment, potentially denying Chinese users the benefits of that environment and preventing them from using (in their preferred Chinese language) the many sophisticated application programs developed for that environment.
The present invention solves this problem, in a manner which is completely transparent to the computer user, by converting (or mapping) each dual-byte character font into a plurality of single-byte character font segments compatible with the Microsoft.RTM.Windows.TM. environment. This facilitates direct input of Chinese characters into any software which utilizes single-byte font technology.